If you’re into backpacking, the stuff Mont Bell has to offer is just the best.
Ironically, I don’t even like backpacking much anymore. But I would love to own just about everything they sell. It’s just the lightest, highest quality, finest designed products available. (They are now what Sierra Designs or North Face used to be.) Maybe I’m like like the SUV owner who never puts it into 4WD. I just like the possibility of using the extreme capabilities.
Their US flagship store is just 40 miles from my house. The siren calls…
When I was in college (a decade ago), North Face backpacks were all the rage. Oh, and the Nalgene bottle that sloshed on a caribiner attached to the North Face bag.
I rebelled by carrying my books in a canvas tote. Later I got a Kelty bag when I really lived in the mountains. The bag even has special slots to hold cross-country skis. I’ve never tried that, but it would be super cool. Or perhaps a balancing act.
With that pack and skis, I’d probably slip and fall and kill myself.
But I do remember those romantic photos from backpacking catalogs of a hiker on a sunny winter’s day with that pack – complete with skis in the slots. (I still have at least one of those catalogs in a box in our garage.)